Saint Anno, Anno also spelled Hanno (born c. 1010, Swabia—died Dec. 4, 1075, ; canonized 1183; feast day December 4) archbishop of Cologne who was prominent in the political struggles of the Holy Roman Empire.

Saint Anno raising his hands as the young king Henry IV attempts to escape from his abductors; …

James Steakley

Educated at Bamberg, Anno became confessor to the Holy Roman emperor Henry III, who appointed him archbishop in 1056. He was the leader of the party that abducted the young king Henry IV from his mother, Agnes of Poitou. Anno then seized the regency but was compelled to share it with Adalbert, the powerful archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. In 1064 he left the court but recovered some of his former influence over Henry when Adalbert fell from favour in 1066. Anno’s most important service was at the Council of Mantua (May 1064), when he succeeded in having Alexander II recognized as pope against the antipope Honorius II, who was originally a nominee of the German court. Anno retired to a life of strict penance at the Abbey of Siegburg, which he had founded in 1064.

...in Germany’s history during the Middle Ages. In fact, the German church had proved thoroughly unreliable as an inner bastion of the empire even before Rome struck. One of its leaders, Archbishop Anno of Cologne, kidnapped Henry in 1062 to gain control of both the young king and the regency, and another, Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen, exploited his influence over the young king by enriching...